To climb or not to climb
On a recent trip to Uluru, aka Ayers Rock, my girl and I were faced with a serious dilemma… to climb or not to climb.
Surprisingly, the guides (local Australians… not Aboriginals) we met out there hadn’t climbed it, which I found incredible considering they spend a large portion of every day walking tourists around its base. Aside from the unenthusiastic guides, you’re also faced with a large sign at the bottom that reads:
“Our traditional Law teaches us the proper way to behave. We ask you to respect our Law by not climbing Uluru. What visitors call ‘the climb’ is the traditional route taken by ancestral Mala man upon their arrival at Uluru in the creation time. It has great spiritual significance. We have a responsibility to teach and safeguard visitors to our land. ‘The climb’ is dangerous and too many people have died while attempting to climb Uluru. Many others have been injured while climbing. We feel great sadness when a person dies or is hurt on our land.”
Yes we thought about it but as you can see from the photos below, we climbed it. We felt like the best way to learn about Aboriginal culture was to actually experience it. We wanted to walk in their shoes, or lack thereof, and do so with respect. By walking in the path of the Aboriginals we were able to appreciate the beauty, significance and power of this natural wonder.
I’m so glad we did.
We climbed the rock in the early morning of a perfect day. It was much more difficult than we’d expected and it took us a good hour to ascend but like most things in life that are challenging, it was well worth it. Like two lizards in the desert we lay up there completely alone, with our bare feet on the warm rock soaking it all in. They say Uluru is the heart chakra of Australia and I can now understand why. It was a surreal feeling to be up there and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get a little closer to Aboriginal Australia.
When I travel overseas I always aim to join the local culture but I often forget to do so when I’m traveling in Australia. Climbing Uluru allowed us to literally connect with the cultural center of Australia.
Here’s a little taste of the rock itself – and by the way, the shots below are raw images… no retouching, no colour grading.
As a side note, we stayed at Longitude 131 which is nothing short of amazing!
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10 Responses to “To climb or not to climb”
So, you went against the traditional owners’ wishes. And had a great time. How inspirational.
I’ve been out there and climbed it. Totally agree, it’s the highlight of Australia. Love your shots. thanks for posting
I heard it’s going to be banned soon. I hope not as i’ve never been to Australia yet and I need to climb that rock.
“Defying death, the elements and the wishes of indigenous people, tourists climb Australia’s most famous rock at a rate of more than 250 people a day.
But the sun may soon set on climbing season at Uluru, with a blanket ban signalled within the next 10 years.
Opening a draft management plan to debate yesterday, National Parks director Peter Cochrane said scaling the World Heritage-listed site was culturally insensitive.”
Read more – http://www.theage.com.au/travel/ban-proposal-signals-end-to-climbing-at-uluru-20090708-ddev.html#ixzz1Xaejtway
Mark, I can’t see a ban ever happening, at least I hope not.
Buckaroo, I don’t think they’ve ever claimed to ‘own’ it.
Good day, Mr. JP. I remember tweeting you about the photos you posted captioned: “Shooting on Mars”. And I was intrigued of where this place was, so I asked you and you replied, “On top of Uluru.”
The place is marvelous! I researched about it, and asked a friend about it, and that friend reminded me that when we were in high school our Social Studies teacher told us that this mountain rock had this Mars-like ground color. And I wondered how you climbed the place so I tweeted you, “via helicopter?” It left me a big question mark. Now, this answered my question. The climb itself has great significance.
I would surely visit this place once I have the resources! Thank you for introducing me to the place, JP.
Ralph, it really did feel like Mars (not that I’ve been to Mars recently). Glad you liked the photos. I’m sure you’ll be tweeting from up there some day soon
JP I am really surprised that you climbed the rock and really disappointed also. You are a very astute young man and someone I know who thinks carefully of the implications of your actions.
It is VERY important to the indigenous people of that land that you respect their wishes and refrain from climbing Uluru. I think that if you genuinely wanted to feel close to the land, and the people of that land, then you could have been one with their wishes and been in unison with them. Instead you chose to climb it – because you fancied it, wanted to acomplish the task and get the view and the pictures, and you are now seriously trying to backfill that decision by trying to frame it as something more spiritual. It is a very simple wish they have and it means a lot to them that people respect that wish. It was far more important to you that you did what you wanted to do not what they wanted you to do. Call it like it is mate.
0 out of 10 on this mate I am afraid.
Mr Corbett, I always like your opinion because I know it’s honest. No backfill here though mate, after all nobody made me write this post, these are just my thoughts on the experience.
PS: You and I both know life’s not about marks out of ten
You’re right about that baby – it’s not about scoring it out of ten.
Although I am a ten.
If we were scoring.
Which we’re not.
10.
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